Alef

Alef
Oded Ezer

Alef (seen unobscured in the bottom right) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it is the first letter of the words for ‘God’ and ‘Man.’ The artist, Ezer says, “It has a way of linking things, and it suggests we all have a little bit of God in us.” The link between God and Man is explored here by bending the two edges of the letterform so they almost touch, alluding to Michelangelo’s depiction of God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel.

It is photographed closely to bring the viewer into the letter form and appreciate both its form and its meaning. Ezer’s work, while typographically based, is often three-dimensional, and contorted through that dimension. He works by hand as a reaction to a computer-dominated industry.